SHANGHAI/BEIJING, June 29 (Reuters) - China's major state-owned banks were seen selling dollars for yuan in the onshore spot foreign exchange market on Thursday, five sources with knowledge of the matter said, suggesting authorities are keen to slow declines in the currency.
The state bank dollar selling appeared to prevent the yuan from weakening past the psychologically important 7.25 per dollar level, one of the sources said.
"The 7.25 per dollar level could be the floor in the near term," said another source.
It was the third time this week that state banks stepped in and tried to slow declines in the yuan, which has lost nearly 5% so far this year, making it one of the worst performing Asian currencies. It traded at 7.2483 per dollar as of 0620 GMT.
State banks usually act on behalf of the country's central bank in the foreign exchange market, but they could also be trading for themselves or their clients.
Earlier in the session, the People's Bank of China set the daily midpoint fixing stronger than expected, in what investors interpreted as an official attempt to arrest weakness in the currency.
(Reporting by Shanghai and Beijing Newsroom; editing by Sam Holmes)
